Review: Axe Cop, Volume 1

I never thought it’d turn out that I’d be for enforced, mandatory child labor. But then I read Axe Cop, the comic written by a 6-year-old, and drawn by his 30-year-old brother, and honestly, it’s convinced me that we need to get all children from between 4-7 into the comic writin’ mines right now. Sure, Ethan Nicolleclaims that his brother Malachai writes Axe Cop through playing with his older sibling — but either way, I think we need to make sure we get more comics like these. Sorry, Alan Moore, sorry, Grant Morrison, but you’ve been replaced.

Axe Cop is, well, basically what it sounds like: A cop with an axe. But, really, it’s more than that. He’s got magic and lots of different abilities and he sleeps in a kitty-cat suit. Once he was Axe Cop With Lemon. (Axe Cop bit a lemon; orally is typically the way to get new powers in the Axe Cop universe. Just ask Flute Cop — who’s gone through lots of iterations, including Avocado Solider.) He tends to gather friends almost as quickly as he disposes of bad guys. In fact, bad guys don’t really stand a chance in the Axe Cop universe; given that it’s by a young kid, right always bests wrong, and often in surprisingly violent ways.

You can read all of Axe Cop online for free — but Dark Horse has put together Axe Cop Volume 1, a collection of the first few storylines along with some bonus material — a gallery of fan art from famous creators including Doug TenNapel and Jhonen Vasquez and an introduction from fellow Axe Cop fan and one-time sassy robot Kevin “Tom Servo” Murphy. It’s a good compilation, and a nice teaser for their forthcoming graphic novel Bad Guy Earth, recently published in 3 issues, but soon to be collected as one volume. Or, at least I think it is — and since Ethan Nicolle said that Bad Guy Earth #1 sold out pretty quickly (and you cannot have my copy), it’d be a good idea.

If you’re not quite sold, go check out the website… but I guarantee you’ll be sold on Axe Cop pretty quickly, and you’ll run down to your local comic shop to pick up Axe Cop Vol. 1. And if not, you’re probably a bad guy. Let’s see how you kick.